Saturday was horrid. Fucking terrible.
We needed to bounce after Vegas, and we had every reason to. A good break from the last game, plenty of time to reflect, a team that was first up in their 2026 campaign, and we produced that. 28-2 at the break
I've been a big Payten backer, but I think he's now finished. Too many issues continue to fester under his reign. Our edge defence still sucks. Our halves combo still remains entirely unsettled. We continue to struggle horribly in the player recruitment landscape.
I think the whys no longer matter. The fact is it's not working.
I will though say our top line players made some really costly mistakes on Saturday - BigJase, Luki, Reed, Drinkwater, Purdue. If your stars are letting the halfback push their way over from 5m out or dropping the ball out of dummy half, you're going to lose a hell of a lot of games.
I do though think the fading of the squad over the last 3 years has been a massive part of the problem. We lost Finefuiaki, we recruited Bateman. We lost Val and we've recruited Burns. McLean retired, and we're trying to make Neame work. It's like selling a 2025 Landcruiser and replacing it with a 2008 Pajero. Paulo, Lodge, Derby, Edwards, O'Donnell. I keep hearing that this is a great squad, but buggered if I can see it. Yes we do have some SOO level players, but Nanai is out, Dearden still stuggles at 7 at club level (where opposition teams can afford to load up on him in defence), and Luki is 2 weeks back off a long break and is still finding his way. Cotter's high intensity energiser bunny superpowers only become a factor in hard grinding games - something our team is unable to create. BigJase is now a 40 minute man tops, while Taulagi doesn't have massive impact being on the wing.
I also think Todd is quite a conservative coach - we often don't kick at the end of sets preferring to handover deep in the corners, we don't often challenge for bombs, he prefers utility in his selections rather than impact (hence his love of Granville & Edwards). I just don't think you can afford to be risk adverse when your team isn't the strongest on paper. You have to be willing to gamble.
Dunno who we go for. Walters, Peters, Slater, Young, someone else.
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